Improving Access to Work for deafblind people
13 May 2013
Are you a deafblind person in work? Do you receive support from Access to Work or have you asked for support from Access to Work within the last three years?
If so, now is your opportunity to help improve deafblind people’s experiences of Access to Work, by filling in our short survey.
Alternatively you can email Liz Ball or call the Public Policy team on 0845 127 0068/ textphone 0845 127 0062 to tell us what Access to Work should do better.
Background
Access to Work is a government funded scheme that provides practical help to disabled people in work. It can provide funding, for example, towards the cost of specialist equipment or software, support workers, guides, interpreters and taxi fares.
In July, Sense will be training a team of Access to Work advisers on the needs of deafblind people. After this, we will be looking for other ways to influence them. Our aim is to improve the way they handle enquiries, applications and reviews, and the appropriateness of the support they agree for deafblind people. So that we can be effective, please tell us what you need Access to Work to do better.
We will use all of the feedback we receive when we plan the training and what to do next. We will be looking for issues that cause people difficulties and what can be done to overcome these. We will also be looking for things that Access to Work do well.
It is important that we use up-to-date information. So please focus on your experiences within the last three years. If there is something important that you think we should know about that happened more than three years ago, please tell us when it was.
We may want to illustrate points with examples you give. If we do this, we will make sure that it is made completely anonymous so that neither you nor your employer nor the Access to Work adviser can be identified.